But the popularity of Sheehan's remains unimpaired; and for this there is a reason -- a reason obvious to anyone who will take the trouble to analyse the mixed stenches prevailing there. Over and above the fumes and sickening closeness rises an aroma once familiar throughout the land, but now happily banished to the back streets of life by the edict of a benevolent government -- the aroma of strong, wicked whiskey...
- H.P. Lovecraft, Old Bugs
The Noble Experiment
Since, as you read this, some are still recovering from St. Patrick's day, I’d thought it would be nice show you what Syndicate is up to these days.
Long time residents may remember a place near the docks where business was done over shots of bootleg liqour, while hedonistic jazz babies dance the night away on offbeat rhythms and wild melodies, as if they know the world is about to end. The Eighteenth Amendment did nothing but make places like these more alluring, more dangerous and more profitable, bringing together the seedy underbelly of society and functioning as a catalyst in their organization in a fast Syndicate of bootleggers and rum-runners.
The docks are a very bad place, however. A lot of weird things wash up on the shores and let's be frank here: Deep Ones are bad for business. They may have their strange gold, but their unnerving ways scare away the other customers. Also, they tend to be murderous psychopaths and have some peculiar tastes. So, time to find a better place to sell your moonshine.
Things Going South
If you're looking for a place to launder your resources, Southside Speakeasy (Initiations of the Favored, F57) is the place to be. While the initial investment is high, you can see some return on it almost immediately. Moving resources around is convenient already but what makes it so good is that you can move a resource from a drained domain to an undrained domain, so it can do double duty. For example, on your second turn you can play the Speakeasy, exhaust it and then play a 2-cost card.
The slight loss of tempo is more than made up in the next turns – being able to play two 3-cost cards, or one 3-cost card and two 2-cost cards already show the flexibility. Important numbers, as you can land a flurry of criminals like Hard Case (Core Set, F69) and an overpaid Extortionist (Core Set, F71) to keep opposing forces off-balance. Should things go south from there, moving around resources to adapt your strategy and quickly bring out the big guns.
The Science of Construction
The misdirection of The Syndicate works well with the high skill and quick investigation skills of the Miskatonic University. After all, even the briefest window of opportunity is enough when a story is Open for Inspection (Core Set, F34). Southside speakeasy becomes a lot more interesting if it can hitch off a Museum Curator (The Wailer Below, F70) as he'll lower the initial investment significantly. Erin Moirai (Murmurs of Evil, F28) now moves another Syndicate resource around.
And who could have guessed that you are running your Bootlegging Operation (The Spoken Covenant, F58) from the Atwood Science Hall (Core Set, F35) All that lab stuff is the perfect disguise for a distillery, after all.
